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The Miller's Daughter
The Miller's Daughter Episode Number: Season 2, Episode 16 Directed By: Ralph Hemecker Air Date: March 10, 2013 Previous Episode: The Queen is Dead Next Episode Welcome to Storybrooke "The Miller's Daughter" is the 16th episode of Season 2 of the American ABC fairytale/drama television series Once Upon a Time, and the show's 38th episode overall. It aired on March 10, 2013. It was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Ralph Hemecker. This episode centers around Cora as she tries to kill Mr. Gold, while flashbacks show her past with Rumplestiltskin. Plot 'Opening Sequence' A spinning wheel is featured in the forest. 'In the Character's Past' A young Cora admonishes her father, a drunkard miller, and delivers flour to the palace in his stead. Princess Eva, a young woman, trips Cora, causing her to spill the flour. King Xavier refuses to pay for the flour and orders Cora to beg forgiveness on her knees. That night, Cora sneaks into a masked ball held for King Xavier's son Prince Henry. She criticizes the event as an opportunity for the king to sell his son to a wealthy bride, and is overheard by Henry. The prince invites her to dance, but they are interrupted by the king, who recognizes Cora. He tells her that he is superior to her, despite his kingdom's financial woes, and that she has nothing to offer him. Cora boasts that she can turn straw to gold, but will deny the king this gift because of his insults. King Xavier presents her to the ball with her claim. Cora claims she needs time to prepare, so he has her locked in a tower full of straw to spin into gold by morning; she can marry Henry if she succeeds, but will be put to death if she fails. As Cora considers jumping from the tower window, Rumplestiltskin appears. He demonstrates that he can spin straw into gold, and offers to do so in exchange for her first-born child; he reveals that "she is very important" in the future he has seen. Cora asks Rumplestiltskin to teach her how to spin gold herself; to which he agrees and she signs his contract. Rumplestiltskin teaches Cora that magic is channeled through emotion rather than thought, and that he uses the anger he felt at being forced to kiss a man's boots in front of his son. As Cora imagines forcing the royals to bow to her, the straw changes to gold in her hands. Cora presents the gold to the King and accepts Henry's resultant marriage proposal. The day before her wedding, Cora questions her plans; she is unlikely to become queen as Henry is fifth in line to the throne, while Rumplestiltskin, with whom she has been having an affair, offers her love. They agree to amend the contract so Cora owes Rumplestiltskin his child. He also agrees to teach her how to take a heart, so that she can kill King Xavier. That night, she confronts the king. He reveals that he knows of her relationship with Rumplestiltskin; telling her that "love is weakness," he lays out her choice between love and power. Cora returns to her room carrying a heart in a box. Later, she meets Rumplestilskin and informs him that she did not take the king's heart, and that she is going to marry the prince instead of running away with Rumplestiltskin. The heart she removed was her own, to prevent it from being an obstacle. Rumplestiltskin tries to invoke their contract, but she points out that he only has a claim on his own child, which she will never bear. Some time later, Princess Cora presents her and Henry's daughter to the court and names her Regina, "for one day, she will be queen." Everyone bows to Cora. 'Storybrooke' Rumplestiltskin's name is fading from the Dark One's dagger, signifying that Gold is dying. Since Gold's death would cause the Dark One's powers to cease to exist, Cora decides her only option is to kill Gold with the dagger and become the Dark One herself. Regina questions Cora's motives, as Henry would never forgive them if Cora openly murders Emma Swan's family. Cora insists she is protecting their family. Neal and Henry pilot the Jolly Roger into Storybrooke, while Emma promises to save Mr. Gold from the poison Hook inflicted on him, as he is now family. Mary Margaret and David meet them at the dock. Mary Margaret still intends to kill Cora, despite David's insistence that she couldn't live with herself if she did that. Ruby takes Henry to safety, while the others go to Gold's shop. There, Gold instructs Emma on creating a magical barrier with invisible chalk, and she and Neal bicker while she does so. Gold leads Mary Margaret to find that he has the magical candle that Cora had given her years earlier, which can save a life by causing another person's death. He asks her to use it to save him, and she agrees once she realizes she can use the candle to kill Cora. With Gold's guidance, Emma taps into her emotions to cast the protection spell. Cora and Regina arrive at the shop and overcome the protection spell. While David, Neal, and Emma stand against them, Mary Margaret sneaks away to Regina's mausoleum and uses the candle to curse Cora's heart. Regina follows after Cora senses that someone is there. Emma and Neal retreat to the back room, where she casts a new protection spell. Believing he will die, Gold asks to call Belle. Although Belle still doesn't remember Gold, she is moved when he tells her he loves her, and that she is a hero for loving a monster like him. He says that she inspires him to be his best self. Neal is surprised to hear such heartfelt words from his father, who then also apologizes to him. Neal affirms that he is still angry, but he tearfully embraces Gold. Regina discovers Mary Margaret at the mausoleum. Mary Margaret gives Regina Cora's heart, explaining that all of their problems are caused by Cora's inability to love Regina or anyone else without her heart inside her. David later finds Mary Margaret there in a state of shock over her own actions. As Gold nears death, Cora breaks through Emma's spell and magically sends Emma and Neal away. Gold asks Cora if she ever loved him. She admits that she did, and that was why she had to remove her heart; he had become her weakness. Cora is about to kill him with the dagger when Regina restores her heart. Cora experiences a joyous moment of love for her daughter before succumbing to the poison of which Gold has been cured. She dies in Regina's arms, acknowledging with her last words that a loving relationship with her would have fulfilled her life in a way that power couldn't. Gold reclaims the dagger. Mary Margaret rushes in to stop Regina, who accuses her: "You did this." Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood/Ruby *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Barbara Hershey as The Queen of Hearts/Cora *Michael Raymond-James as Baelfire/Neal Cassidy *Joaquim de Almeida as King Xavier *Zak Santiago as Prince Henry *Eva Allan as Princess Eva *Rose McGowan as Young Cora Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features Rumplestiltskin's spinning wheel. *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on December 31, 2012. *This episode was rerun as an "enhanced" version on April 7, 2013. It included popups with extra tidbits about the show. *Gerry Rousseau, who plays the Miller, is also present in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland episode "Trust Me", where he plays Townsperson 2. *The computer-generated set used for King Xavier's castle is recycled from the computer-generated imagery model for the King's castle in "The Price of Gold". This can be seen from the archways and the balcony outside, which have a very similar design. It is recycled again for the digital set of the Maritime Castle in "Ariel", where the archways and the balcony have the same design as Xavier's castle, except for the different colors. The stairs also have a very similar design. The model is used again for the Camelot Castle courtyard in "The Price", "Siege Perilous" and "The Bear King", which can be seen from the similar design of the archways and the railing on top of them. *Rumplestiltskin says that Cora's name "sounds like something breaking". Fittingly enough, Cora's name is a reference to the Latin word for "heart". *On the episode commentary, Jane Espenson clarifies that Cora's heart and her heart vault came with her on Hook's ship, and that Regina had them uploaded and placed within her own heart vault. If you look at the vault that Mary Margaret opens, you can see that is the same vault that Cora used for storing the Safe Haven residents' hearts in "Into the Deep". *A sequence of Neal and Emma running after Cora magically teleports them, was cut from the episode. *The wound on Cora's chest was created digitally. During filming, a plastic object was placed under Barbara Hershey's lapel for reference. *Cora tells the court that her newborn daughter's name is "Regina, and then states, "for one day, she will be queen". Fittingly, Regina is Latin for "queen". |-|Goofs= *When Cora holds up the infant Regina during her announcement ceremony, the baby is wearing a modern diaper. |-|Other Notes= FILMING LOCATIONS *The set used for filming the Miller's cottage was redressed to double as other dwellings on Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It doubles as Snow White's hideout cottage in "The Evil Queen", the Mad Hatter's house in "Down the Rabbit Hole, and Will and Anastasia's cottage in "Forget Me Not". *For the scene with young Cora and her father, the top of both the windmill and the cottage is CGI. ORIGINAL SCRIPT *The part where Rumplestiltskin's name disappears from the dagger, was originally written differently. Originally, the viewers were not meant to see the letters fade; instead, one letter would be missing, then another, and the name would become shorter and shorter. It was changed because it was cheaper to digitally erase the letters on-screen, instead of creating a bunch of different prop knives with different letters. *King Xavier's line about Cora's stolen dress was not originally in the script. The production team asked where Cora got the dress, so the line was added to explain it. *The scene at the Storybrooke Dock was originally written differently. Cora and Regina would have searched Hook's ship to find Mr. Gold, only to find out that he was not there. The scene would then cut to Mr. Gold with the others in a row boat, in a boat house in the middle of the night. The scene was rewritten to save time and money. *The scene where Cora spins for the King, was originally longer. The scene originally opened with King Xavier announcing to his court that Cora was going to spin for them, and Cora trying to spin straw into gold, but it doesn't work. As Cora is sweating nervously, the episode would cut to the scene where Rumplestiltskin teaches Cora how to spin straw into gold. As Cora thinks about what he taught her, and finally manages to spin straw into gold in front of the audience. *Cora's line to King Xavier, "They told me I'd find you counting your treasure", was originally meant to be "They told me I would find you in the counting house, counting out the money"; a reference to the famous nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The line was changed during filming. *In the original script, Regina uses a sword in the fight in the pawnshop. This was changed when someone pointed out the error. Jane Espenson had forgotten that Regina has magic.